Policies to combat centralism in Romania. Lobbying, advocacy and participatory democracy

Abstract

Applying total decentralization requires efficiency in itself, because the administration-citizen relationship will move closer towards that companyclient relation (initiator-agent type relationship). Through decentralization the level of a state’s democracy increases, resulting in a basis for proper governance. Transparency and responsibility of the deciding factors is improved, due to a high level of control by the public sector’s beneficiaries at the local level. A major part of the feedback offered to the public administration will be from the citizens and the civil societies, which will improve cohesion and social capital on a local level. As a corollary to the afore mentioned, decentralization’s role is to support development, first of all by a stronger motivation of the citizen’s in order to draw more resources for projects, which will have a direct impact on them and second, by focusing on the groups that find themselves in vulnerable situations. Enhancing local democracy end empowering communities in decision-making are top priorities of European political agendas. However, the abundance and heterogeneity of existing examples of inclusive practices have provoked an ongoing debate on the implications and outcomes that deliberation might generate under specific conditions. Among these practices, urban regeneration is usually welcomed as a vehicle for engaging communities in public-decision making; nevertheless, the specific participative settings designed to implement those programs tend to generate peculiar communicative dynamics, which can in turn lead to unexpected results. The specific manner in which participation is set up by local governments does influence empowerment results